The Big Show is Lawndale Art Center's annual open-call juried exhibition. It has been an important event through which emerging and under-represented Houston area artists gain exposure. The Big Show was formerly the East End Show, sponsored by the East End Progress Association, at Lawndale's original location. Each year Lawndale Art Center invites a guest juror to select from work submitted by artists living within 100 miles of Houston. Artists are invited to bring up to three works of art, not previously shown in Houston, to Lawndale Art Center where the work is juried on-site for a chance to be included in the show and a shot at one of three cash prizes.

Erin Elder, visual art director of the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, is this year's juror. Her research has focused on counter-cultural education and art practices, with particular interest in those activities happening in the 1960s American Southwest. Her writing has been published by University of Minnesota Press, University of Houston Press, Proximity Magazine and other publications. She has produced projects with a variety of institutions including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Creative Time, the Center for Land Use Interpretation, International Symposium on Electronic Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver.